Lava Briefly Spews From Hawaii's Kilauea

Kilauea — Hawaii's most active volcano — began spewing lava into a residential area on Thursday, prompting evacuations after hundreds of small earthquakes in recent days telegraphed an impending eruption.

Daily Emissions from Personal Care Products Comparable to Car Emissions, Contribute to Air Pollution in Boulder

When people are out and about, they leave plumes of chemicals behind them—from both car tailpipes and the products they put on their skin and hair. In fact, emissions of siloxane, a common ingredient in shampoos, lotions, and deodorants, are comparable in magnitude to the emissions of major components of vehicle exhaust, such as benzene, from rush-hour traffic in Boulder, Colorado, according to a new CIRES and NOAA study.

Swarms of tiny organisms mix nutrients in ocean waters

Swarms of tiny oceanic organisms known collectively as zooplankton may have an outsize influence on their environment. New research at Stanford shows that clusters of centimeter-long individuals, each beating tiny feathered legs, can, in aggregate, create powerful currents that may mix water over hundreds of meters in depth.

Researchers develop portable 3D skin printer to repair deep wounds

University of Toronto researchers have developed a handheld 3D skin printer that deposits even layers of skin tissue to cover and heal deep wounds. The team believes it to be the first device that forms tissue in situ, depositing and setting in place, within two minutes or less.

Researchers investigate two all-too-common conditions in cats: obesity and diabetes

What makes obese cats prone to diabetes? That’s one question researchers at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) and the University of Saskatchewan Western College of Veterinary Medicine want to answer as they work to learn more about feline diabetes.

How drones could improve crop damage estimates

Farmers and insurance companies may soon get more accurate estimates of weather-related crop damage thanks to a University of Alberta researcher working with existing drone technology.

NASA Finds Tropical Cyclone Flamboyan in a Southeastern Stretch

Strong vertical wind shear had taken its toll on Tropical Cyclone Flamboyan when NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Southern Indian Ocean. Flamboyan, now a subtropical cyclone, had been stretched out and its only precipitation pushed southeast of the center.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible image of Flamboyan on May 2 at 3:50 a.m. EDT (0750 UTC). The storm was devoid of rainfall with the exception of the southeastern quadrant. Wind shear has pushed all the storm southeast of the center.

New insights into the origins of mutations in cancer

Researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the University of Dundee and the Wellcome Sanger Institute have used human and worm data to explore the mutational causes of cancer. Their study, published today in Genome Research, also shows that results from controlled experiments on a model organism – the nematode worm C. elegans – are relevant to humans, helping researchers refine what they know about cancer.  

Study shows sea turtle nesting beaches threatened by microplastic pollution

Plastic is famous for its unyielding durability, making it perfect for consumer products but a unique and persistent menace to the natural environment.

For the loggerhead sea turtles that nest on the once-pristine beaches bounding the Gulf of Mexico, millimeters-thick pieces of broken down plastic — called microplastics — pose a particularly urgent threat.

La Niña-like ocean cooling patterns intensify tropical cyclones

The intensity and frequency of strong tropical cyclones, as well as cyclone landfalls, have increased in recent decades in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, raising speculation about the root cause of the surge in destructive Category 4 and 5 storms.

Now atmospheric researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) have published a study in Scientific Reports showing a strong connection between sea surface temperature patterns associated with the Global Warming Hiatus phenomenon and changes in cyclone activity over the northwest Pacific Ocean, particularly increasing intensities in coastal regions of East Asia.